Mediafed debuts a new syndication button called Qrius

Qrius will allow publishers to monetize through advertising

Digital publishing monetization company Mediafedhas a new product called Qrius, a new syndication button for major online media publishers, which it has debuted on Thursday.

Qrius is a new way for publishers to make money off their content while evolving with the social and mobile generation. It allows them to reach the 90% of global consumers who do not use RSS, Ashley Harrison, CEO of Mediafed and Taptu, said in an interview with VatorNews.

"If you go to the average person and ask them what RSS is, only 10% will know," he said. With Qrius, they will be able to follow their favorite news sites across different mobile devices and desktop Web. The content is streamed on the Taptu platform, and currently is available on iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Samsung Bada and ln desktop.

To use Qrius all a consumer has to click the Qrius icon on any of your favorite news sites, sign into Qrius using their existing Facebook, Twitter or Google+ login and then send their favorite content to Taptu to instantly begin reading Qrius news on any device. Users will be able to see three articles at the top of their feed, then click to descend the rest of the feed.

Qrius eliminates many of the obstacles that come with RSS, which Harrison says has "lost its way as a trusted subcription platform," and it gives publishers a chance to monetize through in-feed advertising, which is geo and keyword targeted.

Advertising will go beyond just display banners, Harrison said. For example, the company is developing a way of putting videos inside articles. Of course, the ads cannot be intrusive, and so each users will only see two advertisments per day.

Around 2,000 premium publishers from around the world, including IDG UK, Le Figaro, Reuters China, Bild and India Today, have already begun using Qrius. While Harrison says that the company will eventually open Qrius up to all publishers, right now it is only working with premium publishers.

“We expect our integration of Qrius to help drive additional revenue from our syndicated content,” Juan Ramón Rodríguez, Director Comercial of El Economista, said in statement. “We chose to integrate Qrius because of its reach on desktop and mobile through news reader Taptu, and because Mediafed has delivered real revenue to publishers like us through its extensive advertiser base.”

Founded in 2007, London-based Mediafed monetizes RSS feeds by allowing publishers to see how their feeds are being used, how many people are using them and where they are being read. Named one of Europe’s top ten fastest growing digital media companies at the 2011 Media Momentum Awards, Mediafed has partnerships with a number of top publishers, including New York Times, Le Monde, Reuters, Axel Springer, Hachette Filipacchi, IDG, El Mundo, La Gardere and WSJ China.

Mediafed monetizes news feeds to 200 million consumers from over 2,000 premium publishers in over 55 countries around the globe.

In September, Mediafed acquired Taptu, a social media and mobile technology company that builds platforms, tools and applications that enable creation, curation, recommendation, search, discovery, management, consumption and sharing of content across all personal screen-based devices.

Since the acquisition, Mediafed’s mobile presence has quickly shot from 54 million in September to over 76 million. This month, Mediafed users read 200 million article, double the number from a year ago, Harrison said. And the company hopes to have added another 100 million to that number by the end of 2013.

Harrison would not disclose the company's earnings, only to say that it is profitable and making "double digit millions."